We want to give you a heads-up on what’s ahead here at Jewish Voice. We’re trusting the Lord in big ways for three special events in the first quarter of 2023. We are so grateful for the undergirding your prayers give this ministry, including for these events. We’ll send you more specific information and Prayer Points in upcoming emails, but we are praying for them now and would love for you to join us. Please pray for:

SCOUTING TRIP

Several key leaders, including our Director of Global Outreach and Vice-President of Congregations and Leadership Development, will be heading to Africa for a scouting trip from mid-February to early March. Please ask the Lord to:

• Order the steps of these good men as they seek to discern His locations and plans for future Outreaches
• Grant great favor in revealing and preparing the regions to visit and explore
• Provide divine direction from the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) and His human instruments for discerning locations, timing, and partners in the harvest this year and beyond
• Pinpoint the Jewish people groups on His heart for Jewish Voice Ministries and to make His timing clear

ETHIOPIA MEDICAL OUTREACH

Our first Outreach of the year will be in Ethiopia. We hope to return to a previous location, as there is much to be done there. The Outreach trip dates will be March 9–19. Please pray for:

• Peace, health and the Lord’s own shalom and favor to keep the international and spiritual doors  open to ministering in this nation
• Logistics to fall into place with ease, as the Outreach is fast approaching
• The Lord to prepare hearts to hear the Gospel even as He prepares them to come and receive care

ZIMBABWE MEDICAL OUTREACH

In 2022, Zimbabwe had a record wheat harvest. We are praising the Lord for this and are praying for an incredible spiritual harvest in Zimbabwe in 2023. This Outreach trip will be from March 23–April 2. Please pray for:

• The “fields” of Jewish people and their neighbors in Zimbabwe to truly be ready for a harvest of salvation
• The Lord to prepare and send JVMI harvest workers – Outreach partners and medical volunteers who will be His hands and feet as they minister love and share salvation
• Grace, stamina and health for our director of Global Outreach, who himself will be “in the field” serving the Lord from late February, when the scouting trip begins, to the beginning of April, when the Zimbabwe Outreach ends

Let’s Pray

Lord, as Proverbs 16:9 says, even when we seek You in making plans, we are still dependent on You establishing our steps. We ask for Your continued wisdom, guidance and direction because our heart’s desire and prayer is for Jewish people to be saved and gathered in Messianic Jewish communities of faith. Use us as we go where You call us to go. It’s all for Your glory and for Your people to be blessed! In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL UPDATE

A Note from Jonathan Bernis

Shalom, my friend!

This week we pause in remembrance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. And to grieve for their families, their lives and the lasting global stain of Nazism that caused so much hatred, suffering and death.

Days of remembrance like this are critical. We remember so that we never forget … so that it never happens again. 

As you remember God’s Chosen People, as you thank God for the Auschwitz liberation that took place in 1945, please pray that the Jewish people will experience true liberation that can only come from Yeshua (Jesus), the Messiah.

Thank you for standing with us. And for your love of God’s people. Please continue to pray for Jewish Voice and for the Jewish people in Israel and around the world.  

To the Jew first and also to the Nations,

Jonathan Bernis

President & CEO

Jewish Voice Ministries International

Headline News

Amid a Rise of Anti-Semitism, Global Support for the Jewish People is Undeniable

YnetNews reports that a total of 1,116 global entities adopted and endorsed the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism issued by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). According to the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM), the tidal wave of global support for the Jewish people is undeniable and greatly encouraging. Especially at a time when the rise in anti-Semitic incidents has been alarming.

Since the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism was adopted by the IHRA in 2016, it has become the consensus definition and a widely-recognized tool in the effort to identify all contemporary manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred, including by far-right extremists, Islamists and the far-left.

Included in the growing list of IHRA Working Definition of Anti-Semitism adoptions are nations, cities, universities, NGOs and corporations such as The Philippines, Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vancouver, the University of Pittsburgh and Lufthansa Airlines. And in the United States, 18 new states adopted it via legislation or executive actions throughout the last year, bringing the total number of states adopting this definition of anti-Semitism to 30 out of 50.

“Support for the IHRA Working Definition of Anti-Semitism transcends the political and ideological spectrum and unites entities and individuals of a broad swathe of religious, national and cultural backgrounds,” said CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa.

Updates from the Middle East

Israel Walks Tightrope During Russia-Ukraine War

Israel has sought to maintain relations with both countries even as it has condemned Russia's war on Ukraine and has provided humanitarian assistance. While Israel’s embassy in Kiev had ceased operating full-time when the war broke out last February, plans are underway to restore its operations within 60 days. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, indicated that humanitarian aid would continue with the fully operational embassy when he tweeted, “I promised to continue the humanitarian aid with an emphasis on the restoration of energy infrastructure.” To date, Israel has provided Ukraine with some $30 million in humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies, generators and charging stations for phones.

Last Jewish Youth to Escape Auschwitz Passes Away

Israel Levin, the last Jewish youth to survive the Auschwitz concentration camp, passed away recently at the age of 90. Levin was 11 years old when he managed to escape the camp alongside his father and a group of other adults through the camp’s sewer system. His family told reporters that he thought it was important for everyone to know the horrors and difficulties he faced during the Holocaust and how he managed to survive. Levin’s mother and sister were murdered in the Holocaust.

Pray with Us This Week

Please pray with me for:

• God to continue to protect innocent lives from the fighting in Ukraine and to bring a peaceful end to the invasion by Russia
• God to break our hearts over the global horror of the Holocaust so that we’re never compelled to repeat it
• God to surround His people in Israel, who are constantly facing threats and violence from surrounding enemies
• Peace in the hearts and minds of the people of Israel and their enemies
• The Jewish people to recognize Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah

Encircled by Need Konso, Ethiopia

• 10,941 Patients Received Care
• 744 People Received Dental Care
• 2,007 Eyeglasses Distributed
• 210 Families Received LifeStraw® Water Filters
• 2,692 People Heard the Gospel
• 171 People Received Yeshua

Our last Medical Outreach of 2022 was in southern Ethiopia, in Konso, where the gentle, peaceful people exhibited a great hunger for the Gospel. Local officials thanked us for the medical care we brought and also for the prayer and counseling we encouraged their people with.

The patients we saw throughout the week desperately needed medical attention, with most suffering from waterborne illnesses. Severe drought has left very few water sources and those are contaminated by mud and animals.

An existing permanent clinic in Konso can’t keep up with the need. The property around it is huge, but it needed repairs. Not only did we provide medical care for thousands while we were there, but we also revived the clinic’s water system for them by fixing a broken storage tank. With this and other improvements made through your support of Jewish Voice, the facility is now eligible for significantly more government funding. This will be a long-lasting blessing to the community.

Mid-week, as Outreach doctors arrived for the day’s work, they marveled that the line of people waiting for their care encircled the entire property. The medical line alone held about 2,300 people, not including dental and eye care patients. The last person in line stood at the entrance gate right near the first person in line!

It took us all day to put wristbands on every person in line. These paper bands identified treatment areas needed and ensured those who couldn’t be seen that day would get in over the next day and a half.

Doctors stayed late, tirelessly seeing patients. That night, they asked if we could open the Clinic early the next day. Absolutely! Their dedication was incredible. We shifted the morning program by an hour so they could begin seeing patients early. By the end of the Clinic, every patient had been seen.

You played a big part in making this fruitful Medical Outreach happen – through your gifts to Jewish Voice. Thank you! Take a look at how many lives you touched in Konso, Ethiopia.

As we begin this new calendar year, we are asking the Lord to bless us and to bless you!

This is not a selfish prayer; it’s a biblical one. Our prayer is based on Psalm 67, which asks for blessing not just for the sake of the Lord’s own people but for the sake of those He wants to reach through them.

As you consider this short Psalm (included at the end), ask the Lord to touch your heart through His Word. Please pray for blessing for us and those He wants to reach through us — Jewish Voice Ministries and you, our Partners — together. Join us in these prayer prompts, which are loosely based on Psalm 67.

Lord, we are so humbled by all the ways You have blessed us in the past, including during 2022. May we pause to reflect with gratitude on some of your blessings this past year.

• Take a few moments to thank the Lord for what you have seen Him do in you and around you
• Praise Him for all those He has reached through Jewish Voice this past year, through Outreaches, Zehra children’s ministries, television, speaking engagements, podcasts, magazines, newsletters and social media

We boldly ask You to pour out Your grace and blessing upon us this year as well.

• Be specific in asking Him for blessings for yourself and your loved ones
• How is the Lord prompting you to pray for Jewish Voice Ministries in this new year? Boldly intercede for us as well.

We desire that Your ways be known throughout the Earth and that Your salvation be among all nations.

• Ask the Lord to deepen your burden for the peoples of the Earth to know Him and be saved
• Seek, like Paul, to have a heart desire for all Israel to be saved
• Pray for a few nations or regions that the Lord brings to mind
• Perhaps include Israel, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and your own country in your prayers
• Pray for locations with high populations of Jewish people, such as Los Angeles and New York City
• What city in your state or country has a high percentage of Jewish people? Pray for them

Lord, help me picture all the peoples of the Earth praising You and celebrating who You are with great joy.

• Ask the Lord for faith to pray in agreement with His word that this will someday become reality
• Remind yourself that “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9) will include many from the “lost” scattered tribes of Israel!

Lord of the harvest, bless the physical land in the various places of the Earth but please also bring a mighty harvest of souls throughout the nations.

• Intercede that the Lord will send laborers into the harvest fields
• Name a particular country or location on your heart and ask Him to send laborers there
• Pray for the Lord to send laborers into the harvest fields through Jewish Voice

Lord, in humility inspired by Psalm 67:7, we ask again that You would bless us individually and Jewish Voice as a ministry.

• Petition the Lord that we would be good stewards of the blessings He gives us so that all the ends of the Earth will be blessed by knowing Him, being in awe of Him, and receiving salvation from Him

Amen! May we return often to this prayer for the Lord’s blessing this year. May we live it out so that many others in the nations of the Earth would be blessed. And together, may we accumulate many praises for how the Lord has answered these prayers!

Psalm 67

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us —
2 so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.

3 May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You.

6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
7 May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

JANUARY 2023

THIS WEEK'S GLOBAL UPDATE

A Note From Jonathan Bernis:

Shalom, my friend!

My prayer in this new year is for you to have eyes that can see and a heart that’s open to God’s leading and calling for you. He has so many blessings for you — no matter who you are or how you’re entering 2023.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” 

 — Isaiah 43:18-19

That’s a tremendous hope to cling to as we start another year. May God give you a fresh revelation of His presence — and reveal the new things He has for you in the year ahead.

Thank you for standing with us. And for your love of God’s people. Please continue to pray for Jewish Voice and for the Jewish people in Israel and around the world. 

To the Jew first and also to the Nations,

Jonathan Bernis

President & CEO

Jewish Voice

Headline News

“The Best Option for Russian Jews is to Leave”

YnetNews reports that Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow who fled the country earlier this year, told reporters that other Russian Jews should leave Russia before it’s too late.

Goldschmidt says that as the war in Ukraine continues, pro-Russian sentiments have veered into anti-Semitism, forcing more than 20,000 Jews to either flee in fear of religious persecution or publicly support Putin.

“When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger, you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community,” Goldschmidt said. “We saw this in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime.”

Born in Switzerland, Goldschmidt has been serving Russian Jewry since 1989 but left the country in June, nearly four months after Russia began its invasion. He said that he was being pressured to support the invasion and feared the impact his refusal might have on Moscow’s Jewish community.

Updates from the Middle East

U.S. Targets Supply of Iranian Drones to Russia in New Sanction

The U.S. recently issued new sanctions targeting suppliers of Iranian drones that Washington said have been used to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia. The U.S. Treasury Department, in a statement, said it imposed sanctions on six executives and board members of Qods Aviation Industries (QAI) – a key Iranian defense manufacturer responsible for the design and production of drones.

Military Post Near Northern West Bank Barrier Targeted in Drive-by Shooting 

Palestinian gunmen recently opened fire from a passing vehicle at a military post near the security barrier in the northern West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. According to the IDF, troops stationed near the post, close to the Palestinian village of Jalamah, returned fire at the gunmen, who fled and were identified hitting the vehicle. No Israeli soldiers were hurt, the military added.

Pray with us this week for:

• God to continue to protect innocent lives from the fighting in Ukraine and to bring a peaceful end to the invasion by Russia
• God to surround His people in Israel, who are constantly facing threats and violence from surrounding enemies
• Peace in the hearts and minds of the people of Israel and their enemies
• The Jewish people to recognize "Yeshua" as their Messiah

God is a God of place. He put His name in a place called Jerusalem. He walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve in a place called Eden. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah but had mercy on a place called Ninevah.

God meets with His people in places, like Jacob at Bethel, Daniel in the lion’s den and the Samaritan woman at the well. I imagine you can recall and name some of the most significant places where He has met you.

In this Prayer Points, we ask you to pray for some specific places where we’re asking God to use us to help Jewish people meet with Him. We don’t yet know the names of each location, but we are praying about the types of places.

Please pray with us that in 2023 the Lord will lead us to places:

• Where there is a concentration of Jewish people who need to meet Yeshua (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah and Savior
• With Jewish scattered or “Lost Tribes,” who are not lost to God
• Where we'll have divine connections and favor, ordained by the Lord
• We have ministered before and can build on our history and existing relationships with leaders, authorities and congregations already in the area
• New locations within nations we’ve been to before that we can reach out to for the first time and advance the Gospel to the Jewish people and their neighbors
• In at least one new nation where we have never held an Outreach before

We are so grateful for your prayers as the Lord leads us to locations like those listed above.

Let’s Pray

Lord, in every place where people are, You are worthy to be praised! But how can they praise You unless they know You and are saved? And how can they be saved unless someone tells them about You? Thank You for the opportunity to go to these kinds of places and tell Jewish people and their neighbors about Yeshua. Show us the way and open the doors to every place You will send us in 2023. Give us big faith, divine connections, effective strategies and plentiful resources to carry Your Good News and Your love. To whatever places You send us, we are ready to go. In Jesus’ name, Amen.